DONNA M. PETKANICS
DONNA M. PETKANICSPartner
Corporate Finance
Corporate Law & Governance
Energy & Clean Technology
Entrepreneurial Services
Life Sciences
Mergers & Acquisitions
Venture Capital
Donna Petkanics is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Her law practice focuses on the representation of growth companies, with a particular emphasis on corporate and securities issues. She represents both privately held and public companies across a broad range of industries, including telecommunications, Internet infrastructure, networking, life sciences, computer software and hardware, clean technology and energy, and electronics. She has experience representing companies in many types of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, and joint ventures. She also counsels clients who are starting new businesses with respect to general corporate matters and protection of their intellectual property.
During her tenure at the firm, Donna has served in a number of management positions, including managing director of operations and chair of the Operations Committee from 2000 to 2006; member of the firm's board of directors, Policy Committee, and Compensation Committee; associate managing partner of the firm; and
Prior to attending law school, Donna was a staff economist in the Executive Office of the President during Jimmy Carter's administration and also worked for the House of Representatives. She began practicing at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in 1985.
SELECT TRANSACTIONS AND CLIENTS:
- In the course of her career, Donna has represented companies and underwriters in more than 65 public offerings
- Public companies Donna has represented include Agilent Technologies, Calgene, Catalytica Energy Systems, Cell Genesys, Cypress Semiconductor, Foundation Health, Hewlett-Packard, LoudCloud, Pacific Biosciences, PMC-Sierra, Solectron Corporation, Sun Microsystems, and Zilog
- J.D., University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, 1985
- B.A., Economics, Northwestern University, 1980
Member, Phi Beta Kappa
- Trustee, UC Berkeley Foundation
- Member, Board of Advisors, Stanford Community Law Clinic (2000-2006)
- Member, Board of Visitors, Northwestern University, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
- Co-chair, Northwestern University San Francisco Bay Area Regional Council (2008-present)
- Chair, Committee on Realizing Business Potential, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2004-2005)
- National Judge, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2003-2005)
- Judge, Clean Tech Open (2006-2009)
- Named by the Silicon Valley Business Journal as a Woman of Influence, 2013
- Recognized in the 2012 edition of Northern California Super Lawyers
- Selected for inclusion in the 2012 edition of The International Who's Who of Internet & e-Commerce Lawyers
- AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating, Martindale-Hubbell
- Donna is a frequent guest speaker on matters relating to practice management, firm governance, corporate governance, executive compensation, and women in the law
- Lecturer, Berkeley Law, University of California, Berkeley - Venture Capital and Initial Public Offerings
- State Bar of California
